Orbán’s Son Lobbied to Send Hungarian Troops to Chad to “Protect Christians”

Gáspár Orbán, a captain in the Hungarian Army and the only son of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is advocating for sending Hungarian troops to Chad “to protect Christians.”

Espreso reported on this, citing an interview that Captain Szilveszter Palinkas gave to the Hungarian media outlet Telex.

According to Palinkas, Orbán shared these ideas while they were studying together at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the UK. He mentioned that Orbán spoke at length about having “found God” during a Christian mission in Africa, and claimed that “God spoke to him from heaven,” urging him to go and save African Christians.

According to him, this is precisely why Gáspár Orbán began preparing the mission in Chad – something he would not have been able to plan at a strategic level as a junior lieutenant “if he were not the prime minister’s son.”

As the captain notes, Gáspár Orbán shared his calculations with him, which indicated he expected up to a 50% loss of combat effectiveness during the mission.

“I approached him because I knew that the only way to stop this whole process was to stop him. It’s pointless to appeal to the Ministry of Defense, because if Gáspár Orbán wants it, it will happen anyway,” Szilveszter Palinkas said.

Ultimately, according to him, the mission in Chad was postponed due to the elections, as he believes Viktor Orbán does not want to take such a major political risk, given that for the first time in 16 years, he could lose the election. At the same time, he does not rule out revisiting the plan in the next term if the current government remains in power.